Dynamic Blocking (Array?)

[how do i do this?]

Hi, im new to this forum, but i just wanted to ask a question to anyone who may have even the slightest idea.

 

Say you have a dynamic block of a hinge, and you want to stretch it to the hight of a door. The dynamically blocked hinges have a base point, and a grip point. I place the base point at the bottom of the door, and stretch from the grip point to the top of the door, (so that there is a hinge on both the top & bottom of the door).

 

What i want, is for the array tool to automatically place another hinge in the center of the stretch, but only after the top hinge has stretched to/greater than 1000mm. I want this newly added hinge to stay in the center of my two hinges already in place (whenever the hinges are stretched higher or lower, the middle hinge moves to the center), and NOT add anymore hinges, 3 maximum. What can i do to complete this??

 

Edited May 5, 2011 by how do i do this?
Added image

[SuperCAD]

I would use a visibility state for either a two or three hinge set up and then stretch the top hinge at 100% and the middle hinge at 50%.

[how do i do this?]

I thought of that, but it isnt what i wanted. because it would be much easier in the long run if it were to automatically place another hinge in at the midpoint, but only after a set distance..

[SuperCAD]

I think you'd be better off using constraints then. As far as I know, there is no other way to do what you want with dynamic blocks alone.

[Phil Greer]

Do you think then that this could be implemented into SolidWorks as an alternative?

[dbroada]

I agree with SuperCAD that there is no simple method of doing this with 2008 although it may be possible with restraints (2010?). Another possibility though would be to have the two visibility states suggested and then run a LISP routine to set the visibilities appropriate to the distance of the stretch.